


Fragile

by HookbackKarkat



Series: You and I [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dirk and Hal are twins, Hal is human, Implied Parental Death, M/M, soft angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-14 22:33:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9207047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HookbackKarkat/pseuds/HookbackKarkat
Summary: Dirk is fragile. I am fragile. Sometimes, at night, we break.[Takes place before Shadow, about two months after their eighth birthday.]





	

Merciful blankness filled my mind, fear and pain enshrouded by thick, black fog as I slept. This was the most welcoming dream scenario for me, the days of our violet kingdom vanished with the loss of childlike innocence. At best it had become a vast emptiness, at its worst...

His heat beside me is unnaturally soothing, initial chill of wakefulness scared off by his protective presence. As my senses tune into the world around me, the first thing I can pick out from our dark room is him, and the shuddering hiccups wracking his form. He's barely moving, not even curled up, and I figure he must still be unconscious.

"Dirk.." I call softly, reaching to wrap my arms around him from behind. One settles just above his hips, the other brushing beneath his ribs. He quiets as I pull him into myself, burying my face in his shoulder. "Bro, wake up. Just a dream." 

"B-But-- momma-- she's--" He squirms frantically, accidentally kicking me in the shin, and I hug him harder. I don't know what to do, but I know he's scared because I'm scared, too.

"It was a dream, Dirk... momma's gone... you know that." It sinks in as he wakes up more, and he goes deathly still for a few moments before squirming again. I let him this time and he rolls over, clutching me close and crying into my shoulder. Seeing him like this hurts, it hurts because I know the pain and I know the dreams and he's a part of me and he's crying so loud, and before I know it I'm crying too. Crying for momma, but she's gone, she and daddy are under the tree in the park and no matter what Dirk and I do we'll never get her back. That's what the teacher said that day, and it's been seared into my memory every night since then. I have only Dirk now, and he only I. 

I can live with that.


End file.
